Need Help You want to help but can't code?

[Levis]

Is progression of the orher skills going to fast?

 

[A.H]

I'm an addict in such games, so if I don't reach it within the week, no one can

 

[Talisman]

At the moment they're all listed here: http://www.piratesahoy.net/wiki/original-story-tales-of-a-sea-hawk/
Since they are no longer tied to the Standard Storyline, ideally the wiki should be edited to match.
I've been hoping that @Talisman might find the time to update it....

Yes - I am going to have to give some thought to how to organize it.

At the moment the Wiki is based on Beta3-4 with links to the side quest links on the pages of the main quest where they are available ( mostly the Free Play Quests)

It will probably mean just adding links to the Side Quests pages onto the Main Story pages that don't already have them and checking that all the correct Side Quests are linked to a main Story quest.

I don't really want to start changing it until Beta 3-5 is close to final release - I think the Beta 3-4 format should be kept until then since that is the version on general release. Though people testing Beta 3-5 will sometimes have problems finding things.

I find the quickest way to find pages in the Wiki is to use the Page List button , up the top. All the original game side-quests are listed under Original Story - Tales of a Sea Hawk ( I have used the Quest Book headers wherever possible as the page names.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Is it possible to link to the same page from different storylines?
Otherwise one page with all sidequests might make sense.
Plus a list of which ones are active in each storyline.

Probably an overview of the different Free Play starting options should be clearly posted somewhere as well.

I wonder if we could make a public Beta 3.5 relatively soon after we've made some final fixes.
We've come a long way in the past few months with a lot of the projects that we started on just about stable and completed.

 

[HellSailor]

Is progression of the orher skills going to fast?

In my experience so far, It's nearly impossible to achieve level 10 on all of the skills. The easiest ones are Melee, Accuracy, Cannons, and Leadership. Luck can also be achieved at level 10 in the early levels, when the multiplier for experience is very high at what you wish to progress, and with the help of the "random citizen advices" trick. Otherwise, it will be almost impossible to progress it properly.

Then, the slow and harder ones, are, specially, Navigation and Commerce. Those are almost impossible to progress, and I haven't managed yet to get level skill on those two. The rest are hard and slow too, but they are more easier to got them at level 10. For example, Repairs, or Grappling.

So... yeah... I think some of those skills have to be re-balanced in order to have a possiblity of getting them at level 10... Don't know.

 

[Levis]

Do you think the Melee etc are to easy to get now?
Personally I dont think you should be able to get them to level 10 before you are at least level 15 or so.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I wouldn't really want to make it easier to max out all your skills. After all, that's what officers are for. No one person can do everything.

But it shouldn't be that some skills are much harder to get than others. I figure they should all pretty much be equal, depending on what the player decides to focus on.

Unless we figure that the harder skills are the main ones you should get officers for.
But that is a bit of a cop out and wouldn't make for actual good balancing.

 

[HellSailor]

I wouldn't really want to make it easier to max out all your skills. After all, that's what officers are for. No one person can do everything.

Good point. But I think there is something that I have to say you: imagine you want to be ONLY a merchant and you want to earn money just by trading. Like I said above, Commerce is now one of the hardest to progress to level 10. In that situation, wouldn't you like to have a more balanced progress system according to your specific role or style of play in the seas? That way, you will earn experience more quickly and easier than other skills. Of course, if you are a merchant, then other skills, such as grappling or accuracy, should progress slowly according on which way or style do you want to focus on. I hope I have explained it clear.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Good point. But I think there is something that I have to say you: imagine you want to be ONLY a merchant and you want to earn money just by trading. Like I said above, Commerce is now one of the hardest to progress to level 10. In that situation, wouldn't you like to have a more balanced progress system according to your specific role or style of play in the seas? That way, you will earn experience more quickly and easier than other skills. Of course, if you are a merchant, then other skills, such as grappling or accuracy, should progress slowly according on which way or style do you want to focus on. I hope I have explained it clear.

I fully agree with that.

 

[Levis]

If we want to balance this we should start with an inventory of all things etc where you get experience (for a specific skill). If someone wants to do that. Please.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The code where you get the skills and where balancing is probably needed is this one in MAXIMUS_functions.c:

int AddCharacterExpNSChar(ref _refCharacter, string expName, int _exp)

Searching for AddPartyExpChar and AddCharacterExpChar in the PROGRAM folder should find you all places where it is called.
(Warning: It's a lot)

 

[HellSailor]

I fully agree with that.

I also thought about this idea: Why don't we make that, if you choose at the start of a campaign that you select the "Trader" class type (Or whichever it is named, I can't remember), you receive a special bonus acceleration system applied to those skills oriented to the class type? I know that there is a multiplier 1.25x, but my idea is... instead of making bigger the multiplier, let's reduce the amount of exp needed to pass from level to level of skill (From level 5 to 6 and so on). Also, you recieve a penalty on the progress of a couple of skills that are NOT trader ones (For example, grappling and accuracy). What do you think, Pieter? I don't know if that can be possible...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I also thought about this idea: Why don't we make that, if you choose at the start of a campaign that you select the "Trader" class type (Or whichever it is named, I can't remember), you receive a special bonus acceleration system applied to those skills oriented to the class type? I know that there is a multiplier 1.25x, but my idea is... instead of making bigger the multiplier, let's reduce the amount of exp needed to pass from level to level of skill (From level 5 to 6 and so on).

Wouldn't that do almost exactly the same as the current system, but with a reverse code approach? Instead of making the skill increase faster, you would make the limit lower.
Effectively you would then still get those skills faster than others. Right?

Also, you recieve a penalty on the progress of a couple of skills that are NOT trader ones (For example, grappling and accuracy). What do you think, Pieter? I don't know if that can be possible...

That is definitely a new idea though. I think that would require substantial reworking of the system we currently have.
Which isn't necessary a bad thing; would be pretty nice to have an "init_PlayerTypes.c" file where the various types can be set up.
Right now the code related to player types is scattered absolutely all over the place.

But I'm not going to do that as there is of course a large risk of breaking things with such a large change.
Maybe if @Levis thinks it is a worthwhile idea....?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

It is not that hard to max out a skill if you work at it. Abilities on the other hand.................

 

[Pieter Boelen]

One skill including item bonuses should indeed be quite doable.

 

[Levis]

We could add multipliers for playstyles. That shouldn't be to hard.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

There already are.

 

[Capt Pete]

good day Sirs
I would like to help but cant code

things I can help with are play testing and screenies.
just give me a direction and ill check it out

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Brilliant!

One large thing we need someone to do is to play the entire Bartolomeu o Portugues storyline from the start without using the jump-starts.
While we know the jump-starts do work, we need to confirm if it works when played through properly as well.
This might be a bit time-consuming, but as it is a well-written storyline, it should be quite fun too.

Make sure to do this in the Beta 3.5 WIP version; otherwise there is no point to this test.

 

[Capt Pete]

I believe I have 3.5

I will check into it
Any settings you wish me to try it on, or just run it on default?